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Quai des Futurs takes a closer look at innovation in Saint-Malo

For three days from September 25 to 27 2015, the corsair city of Saint-Malo will welcome 5000 visitors with an interest in the People of the Future. Friday is exclusively for professionals, but the event will open to the general public over the weekend.

Claude Renoult, Mayor of Saint Malo, presents Quai des Futurs as a platform for “explaining innovation, in both technology and its usage”. The event, organized by the Saint-Malo Fougères CCI, will run from September 25-27 at Quai Saint Malo, and will explore the theme of “People of the Future”. In the words of Philippe Serrand, Director of Economic Development at the Saint-Malo Fougères CCI, Quai des Futurs will set out to present the “trends that drive the evolution of our society”. To do so, it will focus on four different aspects of life in the future: Local Living, Connected Living, Fun Living, and Sustainable Living.

The Quai des Futurs event will be split into two separate phases. Friday will be dedicated to BtoB discussions, while Saturday and Sunday will be aimed at the general public. On the first day, the debate will open at 4.30 pm with a conference chaired by Jérémy Dumont, Strategic Planning Director at Revolution 9. He will present a guide to trends collated by his company. The next day, a picnic on the Esplanade Saint-Vincent will, Philippe Serrand explains, “promote short distribution circuits”. The main event on Sunday will take place on the Plage du Sillon beach, where visitors will be invited to draw in the sand. At the end of the event, their work will be captured by an aerial photograph.

Exhibitors include over 20 startups

Alongside the conferences and workshops, an exhibitor village will be open all weekend from Friday. It will be home to almost 70 companies, all laying on demonstrations, and room will also be set aside for introducing local makers in partnership with the Maker Fair held every year in Saint-Malo. Lastly, 23 startups were selected from a large number of applications to meet the public. To be eligible for the event, they must have existed for less than 2 years, be based in France and, most importantly in the eyes of the CCI Director of Economic Development, “have something to show for it”. Over the course of the weekend, they will each have half an hour to present their startup.

The Quai des Futurs can also boast the support of a French celebrity: Jérôme Bonaldi. The former Canal+ presenter left his mark on an entire generation of TV viewers, introducing them to objects that were as innovative as they were outlandish. Philippe Serrand believes that the presenter’s involvement is “a way to show that the event has big plans for the future”. This ambition is why French Tech Rennes St Malo, together with Digital Saint-Malo, an association for entrepreneurs in the city, is officially supporting the event. As for the future of the event itself, this will depend on the “public response”, i.e. visitor numbers, with the event aiming to attract several thousand visitors to the first Quai des Futurs.

La French Tech Rennes St Malo EN

La French Tech Rennes St Malo is a program to put France amongst the big start-up nations through acceleration programs and international promotion. Rennes / Saint-Malo is one of the first regional clusters that were awarded this highly competitive label. Our areas of expertise are Cybersecurity/Privacy, Edtech/Entertainment & Foodtech.